Did Hobbs not debating have any impact on the outcome at all?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

LOL no.

[Mr. Smith]

Given how Kelly and Fontes ended up, yes.  Luckily, it seems she got put over the line.

[xavier110]

The eternal debate. I think it would have worked in her favor to debate, but she won so whatever.

[DaleCooper]

Given that she dramatically underperformed the other two statewide Democratic candidates that ran against insane Republicans I would say that it and her other mistakes impacted the outcome.

[Alben Barkley]

Given that she dramatically underperformed the other two statewide Democratic candidates that ran against insane Republicans I would say that it and her other mistakes impacted the outcome.

Or Lake, the candidate more used to being in front of a camera and manipulating the media, could have gotten a lot of momentum off the debate and won.

Then again Oz still lost despite easily winning his debate, so perhaps the real lesson here is simply that debates don't matter?

Also she actually outperformed the Dems running for AG and Superintendent.

[Ljube]

Given that she dramatically underperformed the other two statewide Democratic candidates that ran against insane Republicans I would say that it and her other mistakes impacted the outcome.

Or Lake, the candidate more used to being in front of a camera and manipulating the media, could have gotten a lot of momentum off the debate and won.

Then again Oz still lost despite easily winning his debate, so perhaps the real lesson here is simply that debates don't matter?

Also she actually outperformed the Dems running for AG and Superintendent.

Debates matter.
Oz lost because he is a Muslim.
He severely underperformed in Trump country.

Lake is a media personality, but her positions and ideas are crazy.
Hobbs doesn't have any charisma and was a weak candidate and was probably hurt by skipping the debate, but this year the voters rejected the candidates with crazy ideas and elected even incompetent people.

[Ogre Mage]

I would chalk up the closeness of the race to Lake's stronger campaigning skills in general.  The debate is a small part of that.  It gave Lake a line of attack that Hobbs is a coward. 

Mark Kelly did considerably better than Hobbs.  But I'm not sure I would attribute that to the fact he debated and Hobbs didn't.  Kelly was facing a very weak opponent in Blake Masters, a propped-up Peter Thiel flunky who came off as a cross between Richard B. Spencer and Patrick Bateman.  There's a reason Masters drew national ridicule.  Hobbs faced an opponent with actual skills.

I've read Hobbs is a poor debater.  Refusing to participate in the aspects of campaigning you're bad at isn't a great look.  But given her opponent worked in front of the camera for 20 years I can see why she took a pass. 

[Schiff for Senate]

Given that she dramatically underperformed the other two statewide Democratic candidates that ran against insane Republicans I would say that it and her other mistakes impacted the outcome.

Or Lake, the candidate more used to being in front of a camera and manipulating the media, could have gotten a lot of momentum off the debate and won.

Then again Oz still lost despite easily winning his debate, so perhaps the real lesson here is simply that debates don't matter?

Also she actually outperformed the Dems running for AG and Superintendent.

Debates matter.
Oz lost because he is a Muslim.
He severely underperformed in Trump country.

Lake is a media personality, but her positions and ideas are crazy.
Hobbs doesn't have any charisma and was a weak candidate and was probably hurt by skipping the debate, but this year the voters rejected the candidates with crazy ideas and elected even incompetent people.

First part - LOL, no. Oz lost because he was an out-of-touch New Jerseyan and because Pennsylvanians don’t like killing puppies and mocking people for having strokes.
Second part - Demonstrably false. He underperformed Trump, yes, but hardly “severely,” and that’s clear just by looking at the actual margins in each county in 2022-SEN vs 2020-PRES.

[DrScholl]

Nobody watches debates save for supporters of the candidates and they only matter if there are gaffes or stand out moments.

[DrScholl]

Given that she dramatically underperformed the other two statewide Democratic candidates that ran against insane Republicans I would say that it and her other mistakes impacted the outcome.

Or Lake, the candidate more used to being in front of a camera and manipulating the media, could have gotten a lot of momentum off the debate and won.

Then again Oz still lost despite easily winning his debate, so perhaps the real lesson here is simply that debates don't matter?

Also she actually outperformed the Dems running for AG and Superintendent.

Debates matter.
Oz lost because he is a Muslim.
He severely underperformed in Trump country.

Lake is a media personality, but her positions and ideas are crazy.
Hobbs doesn't have any charisma and was a weak candidate and was probably hurt by skipping the debate, but this year the voters rejected the candidates with crazy ideas and elected even incompetent people.

Are you calling rural Pennsylvania bigoted? Most voters probably didn't even know that Oz is a Muslim. Fetterman hammered him on being out of the touch and the crudite video was an easy thing to use against him with small town voters.

[AnOdyssey]

First I would like to say - I'M IN LOVE WITH KATIE HOBBS! I'M IN LOVE WITH KATIE HOBBS!

It would have been close, regardless. If she debated Kari Lake, I think it would have helped Katie as she should would have been smacking around Kari the whole time. I can understand why she chose not to debate her however, since Kari's been going around saying Hobbs should be jailed.

[wbrocks67]

I said it another thread, but even the best debater would not have been able to make that debate work against Lake. Lake is absolutely ruthless, and rational does not matter whatsoever to her. If you watch any of her interviews or press conferences, it doesn't matter if you confront her with fact or concrete rational reasoning - she will always twist it into some nonsense and try and flip it on you. Even when Lake is called out and clearly wrong, she tries to manipulate it to not look that way. Hobbs made the right call here.

[President Johnson]

No... I'm not sure the debates even have an impact. Fetterman did poorly in his and still won quite handily. Trump sucked in all 2016 debates and still won.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Debates entirely in this year's elections had no effect, exactly as I expected.

Remember how Masters was supposed to gain momentum on Kelly after their debate? Remember how the sheriff's badge didn't actually make Walker look like an imbecile? Remember how Dr. Oz got elected last week solely due to Fetterman's weak debate performance?

[Ferguson97]

She very well may have lost if she chose to debate.